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Hi Darwin

Thanks for your response.

After some time I eventually understood the file system in the Aspire, well at least a little. I usually had problems ensuring typing the correct input.

I have now found an easier way and that is to change the permissions of the "backdrops" folder from root to user. This will then allow you to copy/paste any picture you have from any source.

Open Terminal and type

sudo su

This gives you root access, then type

chown user /usr/share/xfce4/backdrops

This should change (chown) the permissions of the folder to "user".

Then select File System and find the folder by following the path /usr/share/xfce4/backdrops Then right click on the folder and select Properties, then Permissions and change the permissions to Read and Write.

When this is done you will be able to Copy pictures etc from any location and Paste them into the backdrops folder. |Then select the picture from within Desktop Settings.

 

With the card in, the system treats its capacity, in a way, as an extension of "Home" (with "Pictures," "Documents," etc.), and by default (though you can find how to change it somewhere around here) the system prioritizes whichever storage device has greater free capacity. However, while it can fool itself into thinking that it seamlessly has more space, there are situations (such as you've encountered) where you need to take the hocus pocus into consideration.

 

Actually, what that does is to change the owner of the directory to 'user', which is you.
There are, besides chown (-> CHange OWNer), two other, similar commands:

chgrp - CHange GRouP, which changes the group for a file or directory
chmod - CHange MODe, which actually changes the permissions for owner, group and all

if you type 'ls -l' in a directory, you'll see the owner, group and permissions(those -rwxr-x-rx things at the beginning of the line) of all the contained files and directories. This flexible and transparent system of file ownership and permission is one of the main reasons why *nix systems are vastly less vulnerable to malware than windows.

 

Wondering if someone could seriously help me out here, first thing is how do i get files in to the usr/backdrops folder thing as every time i use the desktop/pictures root every time i reset the wallpaper disappears. Second problem is a dropped 2 "Xfce Menu" icons on to the desktop so now i have one each side of the screen!

Thank you to whoever can help me.

 

Not quite sure what you mean about the desktop icons, but your first question is easy enough:

suppose your image is called myimage.jpg and is in /home/user/
the command you're looking for is:

sudo cp /home/user/myimage.jpg /usr/share/xfce4/backdrops

the sudo is necessary, because root is the owner of the backdrops directory, and you as a standard user don't have write permission there.

 

Ok thanks, will do that now, well you know the step were you drop the "Xfce Menu" button on to the toolbar and it acts like a strt up menu like in Windows XP? Well i accidentally dropped 2 on to the toolbar so now i have 2 of them!

 

Also i must be an idiot as i can't get this right for some reason, i went in to,,,

Xfce Menu > File Manager > Pictures and then copy and pasted the top bit and put it in to the code you gave me so...

Code:

sudo cp file:///mnt/home/Pictures/linuxwall.jpg /usr/share/xfce4/backdrops

But it won't work i get the error message saying cp cannot start no such file or directory.

 

leave out the file:// bit

sudo cp /mnt/home/Pictures/linuxwall.jpg /usr/share/xfce4/backdrops

the file:// bit is just to tell the file browser program that we're looking ata local file, and not something over a network protocol.

As for your 'double menu' problem:
open the list of available panel items, just like you did to ge it there in the first place:

xfce4-panel -a

then grab your extra menu button with the left mouse button and drag it back to the list.
Hope that helps.

 

Still not working grr

 

That was in reference to the image file.

The removal of the Xface menu worked, thanks!

 

Ok then, let's tackle this one step at a time.
If you get an error message at some point, copy/paste that here, and I'm sure we can get you sorted out. Btw, I'll post stuff that you should type into the terminal in bold, anything else is just comments or explanation, ok?

Open a terminal, and do:

cd Pictures

then

ls linuxwall*

you should see your file linuxwall.jpg listed
then try

cd /usr/share/xfce4/backdrops

sudo cp /home/user/Pictures/linuxwall.jpg . (yes, that's a space followed by a period at the end)

 

Thank you so much, that worked! Last problem (I promise) how do i get the wallpaper to stay as every time i turn the laptop on the wallpaper has disappeared.

 

You just have to reset it to use the one from /usr/share/xfce4/backdrops.

Currently, it's still using the one in /home/user/Pictures - We copied it, remember, and didn't move it.
So, just like you usually set your wallpaper when it's 'disappeared again, but this time point it to the new location.

 

Hi, I've just tried this and so far it's gone well except one thing I can't solve.

I've noticed everyone else's xfce start menu just has the icon and no text but in my start bar it takes up room because it actually lists the xfce menu text as well?

 

Thanks for this thread. Lots of useful info!

I setup my desktop and it's all good.
One last thing I'd like to do:

when the cursor stops on a desktop icon for a second, a yellow tab appears with the description of the file: kind... modified... size...

Is there anyway to turn this hinting off???

Thanks!

Francesco

 

Hi odris

The only way the backdrop will remain after you log in is to get the picture you wish to use into the bacdrops folder. This folder is owned by root therefore what is shown in the original post is using a terminal command to copy the picture into the backdrops folder. Now I have an SD card inserted in left slot and that is where I hold my photos. The command line did not work for me as I did not understand the file structure of the One at that time.
I therefore searched to find alternative ways to achieve the same end result. I eventually found the easiest way to do this and also create as many bacdrops as I wanted was to change the owner of the backdrops folder to user i.e. me.
I posted how to do this on page 21 of this thread. Once you have ownership you can copy/paste as many pictures as you want into the backdrops folder without going near Terminal.

 

Hi again

This is my current desktop and many thanks to rjm and all the contributers to this thread without who I would not have got this far and made the Aspire One just as I like it.

[attachment=0:txupt1fr]Screenshot1.jpeg[/attachment:txupt1fr]
You will see that I still have terminal open as I cannot find where, if at all, the PrtSc file is stored. Any help!!!!!

 

Once you've taken a screenshot, can't you open an image file, paste the screenshot into it, and save it to wherever you want (like you would expect)?

 

Hi Jack

That is what I did but I used a Terminal command to take the screenshot then save it to a folder and the only way I know to do that is by having the Terminal open.
The other screenshot's I have seen do not contain any view of Terminal and how to do that is what I am after. I have tried the Windows way of PrtSc and then trying to paste but I never seem to have anything to paste.

 

Are you using "gnome-screenshot"? I don't know why the PrtSc button doesn't work for you offhand, but a workaround would be to go to Settings, Keyboard Settings, tab over to Shortcuts, create a new binding profile, and assign gnome-screenshot to PrtSc. The button should then invoke it just as if you had ran it through terminal.